The field of organizational behavior (OB) entails people think, feel and do in and around organizations and the studying of this behavior. It is studied how one can understand, predict and influence the behavior within organizations. Organizations are a number of people or groups of people who work together toward a, mostly common, goal.

Organizational knowledge is not only relevant for managers, but for all members within an organization. It is assumed that everyone is his own manager. This study is important because well-functioning workplaces, with (among others) performance-oriented rewards and good communication, lead to greater financial success.

Organizations are considered effective when they fit well into the external environment, when the subsystems together provide an effective workplace, when they are learning organizations and when they satisfy the stakeholders.

Why is organizational behavior important?

Organizational behavior is both personally and organizationally important for people. Personal theories can help people understand, predict, and influence organizational events better. We want to understand what is going on around us. Organizations can be complex and ambiguous. Sometimes common sense can help, but not always. This is not only important to managers or people in a leadership position, but also everyone else who works in an organization. Organizational behavior is also important for the organization itself. Organizational behavior is related to higher sales and profitability, but also related to indicators of hospital performance, like lower patient mortality rates and higher patient satisfaction. organizational effectiveness is the ultimate dependent variable in organizational behavior.

What is the open system perspective?

The open system perspective assumes that organizations are constantly interacting with their environment. An organization is an open system that is influenced by its environment and vice versa. Using technology, certain inputs (raw materials, information, human resources, financial resources, equipment) are converted into outputs (products and services, employee behavior, profits and losses, waste and pollution) that are assessed by the environment, which again provide new input for the organization. This is a constantly ongoing process.

In addition to the 'fit' between organization and the external environment, the way in which the organization operates internally is of great importance. This involves looking at the extent to which the input is converted to the output, which is also called productivity. An important factor is how the subsystems are interdependent. If these have a high interdependence, they may be less effective. As soon as something goes wrong in one system, this immediately has consequences for the other systems.

Lean management strives to increase efficiency within organizations. This is done, among others, by constantly looking for opportunities to improve or speed up the production process.

Why is human capital important?

Human capital is the knowledge, skills, abilities, creativity, and other valued resources that an employee can possess. This is difficult to replace with technology. Organizations promote practices that enhance human capital, like rewards, feedback, and fair work practices. They can develop an employee’s skills and knowledge to directly improve individual behavior and performance. Organizations want human capital, because those companies tend to adapt better in rapidly changing environments. Investment and rewards can motivate employees.

The capacity to acquire, share, and use knowledge in constant interaction with the environment is called organizational learning. In order to gather knowledge, information must be collected inside and outside the company. The organization must learn from external sources, discover new sources and be aware of new customer trends. The absorbing capacity stands for the possibility to recognize the value of new information, to implement it into the company, and to use it for commercial purposes. This capacity completely depends on the existing knowledge within a company.

In addition, it is important to share this knowledge within the company. For this purpose, the intranet displays a useful platform, where knowledge can be shared and stored. Further, organizations can stimulate informal online or face-to-face contact. An example of this is the composition of practical communities, in which groups of people with the same interest or expertise are linked. Generally, knowledge must be accessible and free to use.

The organizational memory describes the storage and preservation of the intellectual capital of a company. This memory can partly be found within the employees, but is also stored in the systems and structures of the company. To keep this memory, the company should try to keep the efficient employees within the company, for example by offering good working conditions. In addition, the company can systematically save the employees' knowledge before they leave the organization. A third option is to store the knowledge of employees within the structural capital.

Who are the different stakeholders in organizations?

Satisfying stakeholders is an important part of an open organization (stakeholder perspective). The term stakeholders include employees, shareholders, and consumers. These stakeholders often have conflicting interests, which makes it important for an organization to find a balance and set priorities. Thereby, values ​​and ethical principles stand central. Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide preferences for outcomes or actions. They give direction on what is right and what is wrong. However, there are also common values. Those are values ​​that are shared by a group of people. Values ​​are important in the workplace because it can stimulate employees to work towards a certain goal. Common values ​​become increasingly important because organizations are increasingly exposed to different forms of ethics.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is related with personal values and stakeholders. It consists of organizational activities which intend to benefit society and its environment. This view is called the triple-bottom-line philosophy. They want to profit economically, but also improve society.

What are the anchors in organizational behavior?

There are four different anchors that underlie the study of organizational behavior, namely:

1. The systematic research anchor: this principle is based on systematic research methods. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used. The former is based on the well-founded theory whereby there is a constant interaction between data collection, and the development and testing of theories. Systematic research is necessary for evidence-based management. A lot of corporate decision makers overlook this evidence-based information, because it is hard to see what theory is based on solid evidence, the research is too generic, the ‘evidence’ that tends to get popular is the information that is marketed the best (thus, not always the real evidence), and humans make errors and have biases. To overcome these problems, it is important to be skeptical, to embrace collective expertise, to use stories as illustrating the evidence, and to take a neutral stance towards the trends.
2. The practical orientation anchor: theories in organizational behavior need to be practical, not interesting. The impact of a theory is how valuable it becomes for improving an organization’s effectiveness. An example of this is the MARS model.
3. The multidisciplinary anchor: knowledge from various disciplines is used, including psychology, sociology, and anthropology. This is necessary because organizations have a central role in society. It comes with the risk of relying too much on other disciplines, but organizational behavior theories are not lagging behind on the application of the knowledge.
4. The contingency anchor: this is based on the idea that certain actions have different consequences in different contexts. Each context therefore requires a different approach. An attempt is made to find a good balance between specific and universal theories.
5. The multiple levels of analysis anchor: this is based on three different domains, namely the individual, the team, and the organization. The individual refers to the characteristics and behaviors of individual employees, and the underlying cognitive processes. An analysis of the team shows how the interaction between different employees takes place. The organization reflects the way people maintain their working relationships and how the company interacts with its environment.

What are the emerging workplace landscapes?

In the workplace we can distinguish between four relatively new trends. Those are: diversity and inclusivity of the workplace, work-life integration, remote work, and employment relationships.

Diversity and inclusivity in the workplace can improve the range of knowledge and the openness to share and help. This attracts talent from all over the world and supports women in equal opportunities. The inclusiveness of the workplace ensures that people with all kinds of identities are valued and can contribute to the organization.

When thinking of diversity, most people think of surface level diversity. These are the most observable demographic differences in the group, like race, gender, ethnicity, age, and physical abilities. More deep-level diversity are differences in personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes.

Diversity can make it more difficult for the team to function properly, since differences between members of the team can lead to problems in decision making and team performance. On the other hand, diversity can also contribute positively to an organization, as for example a wider range of services can be offered because the organization is better attuned to the diversity of society. Considering a company's reputation, it is very important to stimulate this diversity in the workplace. Globalization and workplace diversity have caused two new trends: higher expectations in the workplace and increased flexibility in the workplace.

The work-life integration refers to the engagement between the business life and the private life of the employee. This integration is difficult to be kept, as shifts from 9 to 5 are often replaced by 24/7 shifts, expecting that people take their work home and are more flexible. This also introduces the new term employability, whereby employees are expected to not only do their work, but to constantly develop themselves by, for example, acquiring new competencies that meet the needs of the company. Hereby, employees are expected to take responsibility to constantly anticipate the development of the company. Contingent work is also increasingly implemented within companies. Hereby, the employee has no explicit or implicit contract for long-term service, but only a minimum number of hours in a non-systematic way. Examples include seasonal work and freelance employees. Different employees can be deployed for different tasks, which has the advantage that further costs for the employer are reduced. Such work is very attractive for contingent employees because they continue to do varied and interesting work. Nevertheless, they are more often victims of accidents in the workplace, and often have lower loyalty and performance than regular employees. Moreover, contingent work can cause jealousy in the permanent team.

To maximize work-life integration, employees and organizations can integrate two or more roles. This can be having a meeting during a walk. Another strategy to integrate work and life, is with a more flexible work schedule. This is beneficial for communicating with co-workers in other time zones, but also for planning personal chores and duties.

Remote work is a form of labor in which employees perform their work in a different location than the traditional physical workplace. In telecommuting, the work is carried out at home instead of at the workplace. Remote work can stimulate the work-life integration in a positive way and prevents time loss. However, personal life can suffer from telework when there is little room or opportunity to work from home. Remote workers also indicate that they lack recognition and feel that they are socially isolated. Virtual teams are teams that work together without limitations of time, space and other organizational boundaries, primarily communicating through information technology.

There is no consensus if remote work is beneficial for employees and organizations, because there are advantages, disadvantages, and contingencies linked to remote working. Remote workers experience a better work-life integration overall. Job applicants find remote work attractive, and thus turnover is lower among employees who are able to work from home. Remote workers have a higher productivity, experience less stress, and tend to transfer some of the commuting time now to work activities. Companies can reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses when more employees are working from home.

The disadvantages are that people who work from home experience more social isolation, resulting from example less strong relationships with co-workers. They receive less word-of-mouth information, which can disadvantage promotional opportunities and workplace relations.

While before direct employment was common and assumed, now is indirect and contract work is also quite common. This makes sure that there is a shift in formal employment relationships with the organization and the expectations that come with a career at a specific organization. Contract work is the least close to direct employment. They deliver services to the organization and represent the same or another organization. These can be services like food delivery, but also accommodation services like Airbnb.

This shift in direct and indirect employment has an impact on organizational behavior. Direct employment is related to higher work quality, innovation, and agility. This is because there is lower turnover, higher commitment, and more involvement with direct employment. The job satisfaction is generally similar between direct and indirect employment. Agency (outsourced) workers have overall a lower job satisfaction. Teams with both direct employment and agency workers have overall weaker social networks, which disadvantages information sharing.

What is the MARS model of individual behavior and performance?

The MARS Model of individual behavior and results provides insights into the motives behind individual behavior and their results. The factors that influence individual behavior are motivation, ability, role perceptions and situational factors. These four factors have a combined influence on the eventual behavior and performance. They are again influenced by personal characteristics, including values, personality, perceptions, emotions, attitudes and stress.

Motivation refers to the direction, intensity and perseverance of voluntary behavior. The direction of the behavior is related to the objects or situations that someone puts energy into. The intensity relates to the effort someone makes in order to achieve this goal. Perseverance indicates the duration of this effort.

Abilities are both the innate and acquired capacities to bring a certain task to a success. Aptitude (talent) is the innate talent to learn a certain task faster or perform better. Learned capacities are the skills and knowledge that we obtained through a learning process. Competences are personal characteristics that lead to good performance. These are not only relevant for the person, but also for the rest of the group. To find the right people for a specific job there are three things that could be done, namely:

• Select job candidates for the competencies that are relevant to a certain job.
• Provide training to applicants or current employees and thereby impart skills and knowledge.
• Adapting the job to the capacities of the applicants or current employees. As soon as the old tasks are fully controlled, the job can be designed more complex.

Also, role perceptions are of great importance for the performance of the employee. Three processes precede a correct role perception. First of all, employees need to know which tasks they are expected to carry out. Further, they have to be able to rank these tasks by priority. Finally, they need to know what desirable behavior is expected of them to implement a particular task. Role perception is important because it reflects the extent to which employees know where to put energy into.

Situational factors refer to events that are beyond the control of the employee and can influence the behavior or performance. These factors can have a disruptive effect on the performance of a task, which suggests that these factors must be kept under control, if that is possible.

What types of individual behavior exist?

There are five types of individual behavior: task performance, organizational citizenship, counterproductive work behaviors, joining and staying with the organization, and maintaining attendance.

There are five types of common work-related behaviors:

1. Task performance: Targeted behavior that supports the objectives of the organization. Changing inputs to successful outputs. There are three types of task performance: proficient, adaptive, and proactive task performance.
2. Organizational citizenship: feeling connected to the organization and not just exercising a function. These kinds of behaviors are referred to as OCBs. They have great effect on the individual, team, and organizational effectiveness.
3. Counterproductive work behavior: Behavior that directly or indirectly causes damage to the organization. These kinds of behaviors are referred to as CWBs. They can be both intentional and unintentional.
4. Joining and staying with the organization: The above behaviors are important, but this is based on the condition that the employee also stays with the organization. Only then do the behaviors become really important. When companies grow, their demand for skills grows beyond the available supply. They have to hire and retain people who have these skills. The organization sees how important human capital is, when they miss it.
5. Maintaining work attendance: work dissatisfaction or stress often leads to more absence. Both situational factors and workplace factors contribute to absenteeism and lateness. Absenteeism is higher in teams where absence norms are strong. Presenteeism is a problematic behavior related to work attendance. People show up unwell, injured, preoccupied, or faced with dangerous conditions at work. This can lower productivity of the individual and the team. This is more common when there is a low job security for employees, when there is no sick leave pay, and when absenteeism will affect other people.